I’ve been hemming and hawing over whether or not to post photos of the new house. I had a few negative nelly’s that were kinda bringing me down about it. And these were people I thought were friends, not just your average web weirdos. (go Kate, 3 solid bits of alliteration in the first paragraph).

I’ve posted a few photo over on Instagram (first, unpacking kitchen, deer). I love Instagram and Pinterest and I barely read blogs anymore. I’m not even sure if anyone will read this. But I’ve decided that I want to post here. It’s my site and my space and it has been for so many years. I want to document this house that my husband and I just bought. Because it’s incredible and we’re so happy and lucky and thrilled to be here. We really walk around all the time with hearts in our eyes! We can’t believe our luck and I hope you can share in the joy as well.

We will spend the next good long while remodeling. The house was built in 1961 and hasn’t been fiddled with since, with the exception of the kitchen, which was tastefully remodeled in 1974 (Thank you 1974 people for sticking with classic WHITE!!!) We hope to enlist the help of a designer who can merge our styles, and help pick out new flooring, walls, etc.; you know, “finishes.” We definitely want to keep the same feel of the house. It’s totally perfect and amazing, but the walls need to be insulated and we generally want to give it a bit of a face lift. (We need a new roof and new deck, but that’s not super exciting, so I’m putting it in parentheses).

A big hooray for the best birthday boy who turned 1 last week. I can't even believe he is 1. We can't imagine life without him. He's so snuggly and easy-going. He's happiest outside. He loves his brother and family to bits and pieces and we all feel the same way about him. Good growin' young man. Happy first.

To celebrate, we had a little birthday lunch and invited my parents and my brother. It was very sweet & simple. I made pasta with pesto and grilled goat cheese sandwiches over fresh spinach (my two favorites). My step dad brought homemade hummus and guacamole and I made a pumpkin pie for dessert.

My older son did all of the stationery... The invitations are on bookboard leftover from a wedding I worked on years ago. My son wrote the baby's name on all the invites. He also made one for "Blast Off," the baby's unofficial nickname (it's what our older son wanted to name the baby). He also made place cards using washi tape on the wood animal puzzle by petit collage, and a pie banner (made from washi tape and toothpicks). It was so fun to have his help and he felt like such a big kid being included.

I didn't have time to do much beforehand, but my family was happy to help with moving furniture outside and hanging my string of balloons. They even waited patiently while I snapped a few photos.